• Our staff loves to give!  This holiday season alone, our Culture Committee raised hundreds of dollars from our staff members for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  We’ve also done food drives, fun runs for various charities, and so much more.

• Our members love to post photos!  In December alone, an average of 24,000 photos were submitted every day!

• In 2009, our Customer Care team received three major industry awards for outstanding customer service.

• Our first Customer Care agent was hired in November 2000—and that was me!  Since answering my very first customer email a decade ago, I’ve seen our Customer Care team rapidly grow, change, and expand along with our member base.  Now we have a large, dedicated staff of Customer Care agents who handle thousands of emails and phone calls every day.

These are thrilling times to be a part of eHarmony, and eHarmony Customer Care is a wonderful vantage point to observe the happiness great relationships can bring to so many people. I’m sure the next ten years will provide us with plenty of reasons to be proud, as we bring people together to find long-lasting love.

The post Customer Care Fun Facts appeared first on eHarmony Blog.

Distance
Out of all the match settings, distance settings are probably the easiest to expand or decrease in order to get the optimum number of matches.  Did you know, for example, that expanding one’s matching distance from 30 to 60 miles away can more than double the potential matching pool, and that it does not mean you’ll get less matches who live closer to home?  It’s fun and easy to test one’s comfort level, and to see whether maybe a match who lives 32 miles away might be a potential soul mate.  As a Customer Care agent, I’ve seen many success stories made by people who have tested the waters here, and it’s easy enough to change settings back and forth whenever you like from the Distance tab of your Match Settings.

Drinking and Smoking
There are some people who chain smoke their way through the day, and there are some people who refuse even to go to outdoor events where there might be a hint of cigarette smoke in the air.  Most of us fall somewhere between the two extremes when it comes to drinking and smoking, yet often in the rush to complete our profiles, we sometimes choose “never” when we really mean “mostly never.”  For example, if you opt to be matched only with people who “never” drink alcohol, this excludes even someone who has a sip of champagne on New Year’s Eve.  And selecting “never” for your smoking settings might exclude someone who enjoys a cigar on vacation in Acapulco.  I would never want anyone to match outside of their comfort zone when it comes to these, but it may be worth a look at your own Personal Preferences tab in your Match Settings to see if these are set correctly.

Age
Are you getting matches who are too old or too young?  Many of our members don’t realize that they can adjust their age settings in the Personal Preferences section of their Match Settings.  Expanding this can provide more matches; narrowing it can make your matching more selective, and it’s definitely worth your time to experiment with your age range.  One word of caution, though—in my years here at eHarmony, I’ve seen dozens of people write in who want matches younger than they are, because they feel “younger than my age.”  If you’re young at heart, I would still encourage you to keep an open mind: include both younger matches and matches of your same age in your matching pool.  Not only will you get more matches, but you may find success with another match who is also “young at heart” like you!

These are just some of the Match Settings that can be modified to increase, decrease, or simply hone your matching to suit you.  The best part is, you can change your settings back and forth as much as you please!  So be brave, and have fun practicing the easy art of Match Settings.

The post The Art of Match Settings appeared first on eHarmony Blog.

Each day, we had prize raffles hosted by our VPs along with lunches, snacks, and goodies for our valued Customer Care Agents.  And Friday morning, I heard a few cries of “BINGO!” coming from several cubicles as the troops wrapped up last week’s bingo challenges for awards such as gift cards and vouchers for free food.  I got into the act on Monday, and actually won a gift card myself (thank you, O-75!).

It’s good to know that we work for a company that loves us, especially when our company is in the business of love.  We want to extend that appreciation forward and let our customers know that we thank them for making our job so enjoyable.  Customer Care Week has definitely encouraged us to stay the course, and make every email and phone call a pleasant and useful one for you, the customers we are entrusted to care for.

The post eHarmony Celebrates Customer Care Appreciation Week appeared first on eHarmony Blog.

Take Melonee and Joe, who married in January. Melonee wrote in to tell us, “I wanted you at eHarmony to know how much I appreciate the many times a customer service representative encouraged me to keep trying.”  Click here to read their story.

Wayne and Elizabeth, a couple who met through our site and became engaged on June 30th, also recognized Customer Care for their help. Wayne tells us that before he met Elizabeth, he was on a call with an eHarmony representative, recommending that he increase his mileage settings one step up. She explained him that “If the love of your life is just beyond the mileage that you set, you would miss out on that opportunity.” After a little more discussion on that subject, Wayne decided to increase the miles. According to Wayne, “If it wasn’t for that representative… I would have never met Beth.” We’re so excited that we made Wayne and Elizabeth’s success possible!

Another recent Success Story customer had great praise for our Customer Care agent named Ronald, who was “so helpful and genuinely excited that I found someone special.”  It’s a great feeling to know that Customer Care has had a direct impact on our customers, and I beam with pride every time we get another email thanking us for being a guidepost along the road to love.

The post Thank You, Customer Care! appeared first on eHarmony Blog.

Answering questions about love, relationships, and communications as they relate to a website takes a whole lot of skill and enthusiasm.  It’s no wonder, then, that eHarmony’s Customer Care team has just received its third industry award this year for top-notch customer care!

Earlier this year, eHarmony’s Customer Care team racked up two prestigious awards: the Customer Service Department of the Year Award at the Stevies, which recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide, and the Best in Class Call Center award at the Call Center Excellence Awards. And yesterday, our Customer Care team brought home yet another award—the Silver Gartner 1:1 Award for Organizational Transformation at the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Excellence Awards.

Winning three industry awards in a single year is no easy feat, but looking around me at our dedicated Customer Care agents, who have such zeal for helping customers, I see a bit of what our peers must have seen.  At eHarmony Customer Care, every call, every email, and every interaction is important.  It’s a great feeling to know that not just eHarmony, but the entire Customer Care industry recognizes that when it comes to helping customers, we go the extra mile to make sure their experience with eHarmony is a treasured one.

The post Customer Care Wins Three Prestigious Awards appeared first on eHarmony Blog.